Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

No party suggestions really,... things change from year to year (different lineups, different venues). Only suggestion is that if something looks like a really hot lineup, that you can't bear to miss, you might want to get a ticket now rather than waiting since a lot of the parties sell out in advance. With that said, there is always something available, and there are some really fun free parties too.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

thanks chiapet, are you a sonar vet?

So, I bought the half baked off party for thursday. Last years looked pretty awesome from what I've seen on youtube. seems to be a hot ticket. I un fortunately missed the innervisions party ticket sale!!! I was seriously recommended it and I can now see why. Sold out in 3 hours! I might try to wait in line come Friday and see if I can somehow get in.

Do you have ant idea how the the sonar by day is scheduled? I bought that thursday off party but I was really set on trying to see todd terje and lindstrom. What time do you think they'll play. Perhaps I can do sonar by day thursday and then headout to the off party since it goes tell 5am...or just do sonar by day friday if innervisions falls through. Can you get tickets at the door for sonar by day?

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

Hitting both Sonar by day and an off Sonar party later that night is easy as pie, jumpstart. Chia is the last person that will tell you otherwise. She will scoop up tickets to everything that tickles her fancy then will surprisingly make it to almost all!

Originally Posted by boarderwoozel3

I just want to ingest mind-altering chemicals and get my mind blown by tribal lasers.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

You can get tickets at the door for any of the official Sonar events, provided they have not sold out in advance. (Some of the day & night tickets did sell out last year). No idea what time Lindstrom & Todd Terje would be on, but they post the schedule a couple of weeks in advance, though, and most likely you'd be safe to wait until then to buy tickets, if not longer.

Sonar by Day events ran from about 12PM until 10-10:30PM last year. Sonar by Night runs from 10PM until maybe about 7 or 8AM? Sonar by Day is fairly centrally located. (Sonar by Night is a bit of a trek outside of the city - there is transportation to it -- it just takes a while to get there and back). It would be very easy to do Sonar by Day and off-Sonar night time parties, or off-Sonar day time parties and Sonar by Night.

Last year was my first year, I think I went to two events (one day time and one late night) most days. One note though, most of the parties (including the official Sonar events) don't allow re-entry, so while they will post set times in advance, you can't literally go back and forth between events, though you should be able to hit more than one show a night.

FWIW, I went to the Innervisions one last year, and while it was cool, it wasn't as great as people have hyped it to be. And they have quite a few events in that venue this year. But, the lineup is fun, and they do release some tickets at the door, but you'd want to get there early and be prepared to wait. The lines for people waiting for tickets were SO long last year.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

What are your guy's thoughts on pampa records show? The venue is supposed to be pretty awesome, but I wouldn't want to just go to a party because of that only. Its the same venue as the innervisions party, and I won't be going to that now that its sold out. I can have a damn good time usually where ever I'm at, but chiapet seems to think that the innnervisions show last year was over hyped. youtube video looked great, plus i'm a big todd terje fan

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

I was considering that one, but am trying to slow down on buying tickets.... :-)

Let me re-state, the Innervisions party there was really really fun last year (I just didn't think it was *by far the best* event put on that week). Anyway, yes, the venue is cool! It's in Poble Espanyol which is a tourist attraction, but the place where they hold the parties is at the back of the site and is secured off from general visitors. As you walk along the paths to "El Monasterio" (which is a replica, not real, monastery), you'll be looking at Barcelona:

At the top of the hill and behind the 'monastery', there is a flat area for the dance floor - this has Funktion One speakers in a square, while you are inside that area, the sound is pretty good considering it's outdoors. If you are outside of that area, the sound isn't very good. However, it's nice that there are low hills sloping down towards the dance floor in each direction, so you can go sit for a while. There were some hiccups last year like the power cutting out repeatedly early in the day.

While it was empty-ish:

And once it's full:

Okay so anyway. Venue staff - very cool and easy going. Good facilities like lots of bathrooms and lots of bars. They use a drink 'chip' system, which is annoying, you have to go buy chips/tickets, you can't just buy a drink (a lot of the places do this actually). The drinks were really expensive (like $15 USD for a small one), but they were also really fantastic. Best mojitos I've ever had. You can take in bags/backpacks, I don't remember them asking to search, other people brought in outside (non-alcoholic) drinks which no one seemed to mind.

Aside from the good music and good views,... the reason the tickets for these shows are more expensive is because they have to include an admission fee for Poble Espanyol. However, that means that you can explore the tourist attraction too, which has its own restaurants, bars, shops. I found it a bit too touristy, but it was nice to be able to find something to eat nearby and to go take a breather from the music once in a while. You got unlimited in/outs to the event venue, but no re-entry once you leave Poble Espanyol as a whole.

tl;dr version: The venue is sweet, they are putting on several events this year. If there is another one besides Innervisions that interests you, go for it. (I've only see Koze once but had a great time). If you have your heart set on the Innervisions party, get there really early....

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

I can have a damn good time usually where ever I'm at, but chiapet seems to think that the innnervisions show last year was over hyped. youtube video looked great, plus i'm a big todd terje fan

Sadly I couldn't stay till the end of his set because i had to meet up with friends. But as you can imagine, you can't NOT have a good time at his sets.

Anyway. Pampa -- I didn't really care for the latest album DJ Koze released, but I still think a DJ set from him is going to be fun. Koze & Isolee have collaborated together on mixes, etc, so it could be a lot of fun, I think.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

Haha, very classy photo!

Thanks for the wealth of information. I think I might just go ahead and do the pampa party. Since its my first time to Barcelona I could easintially kill two birds with one stone being able to experience the Poble espanyol while being able to party(have lunch as well)

In your opinion then, which party for you was considered the best/highlight of the week and why?

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

Pampa party caught my eye as well and the venue sounds interesting. Been looking at party details for the last 2 hours and still nowhere close to making a decision. Klockwork, Items & Things, Pampa, Olso, Secretsundaze showcase/parties all look good.

Save the Day/R&S/One Illusions party sounds great but I have to work that day

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

I'm not too sure if there will be a Hot Creations party as Hot Natured are playing Sonar by night. From what I've seen so far, it looks like all the DJs playing the official festival are not playing any off Sonar parties for their respective labels i.e Clockwork and Life and Death, George Fitzgerald and Hotflush. Maybe its in the contract....

I also hit the Innervisions party last year- it was definately the best party I went to but I was only there for the weekend so I only hit like 3 or 4 off Sonar parties. Got my ticket for this year though. Anyone know of any parties better than this though, feel free to let me know!

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

STRONGLY considering going to this. first timer. with a buddy. doing wed-sun in barca and heading to ibiza sun-wed (that way we could do luciano @ bomba sundays, our favorite DJ). overwhelmed with all the information/parties but in need of an incredible trip as we're done with all the american "edm" crap here on the east coast.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

I honestly would have trouble picking a 'best' party. Everything I went to had some serious pluses and minuses, and most of the parties were so different from each other. I've only heard good things about East Ender (not an "off sonar" party, but another festival that runs the same weekend), the Move D party at BeCool (which is sold out now). I had a great time at Innervisions, and also went to a party at an out-of-the-way venue that was fantastic. (I've not seen anything posted for that venue yet). I most enjoyed the things that were further away from the Las Ramblas area.... those seemed to be very heavily attended by tourists (not Sonar attendees) who were terrible to be around. The stuff at Poble Espanyol, being a little more expensive and taking a little more effort to get to, seemed to filter out a lot of that crowd.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

i think we're just going to buy a full sonar ticket (it's not thaat expensive), 1 or 2 off sonar parties that look like they're can't misses and then just play the rest by ear. i know a lot of off sonar parties get sold out but i'm truly never going to feel satisfied with buying 1 party ahead of time since there are SO many options - so i'll just go with the flow when i'm at barca. it'll be less stressful that way anyway .

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

Yea... and there are still a lot of parties that haven't been announced yet. (For example, none of the free beach day parties?) My friends had good luck just buying tickets at the door last year, though they had to show up very early.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

I still think about that horrible showcase, Heidi. Those fucking Italians. OK THIS IS MY SPACE. THAT IS YOURS.

About East Ender - there are some things about these events I didn't care for (like the drink ticket system) but the location of East Ender was gorgeous!! If you don't mind shitfaced crowds at the main stage then East Ender is fine. However, I couldn't tolerate more than 2 minutes at the main stage last year (Desolat showcase) so I went back to laugh at Dettmann's trainwreck of a set. The CLR showcase at the smaller stage in the corner of the festival was a fucking blast overall. 3 hour Liebing set during sunrise on the beach was a wonderful way to end the evening and everyone we interacted with was very friendly. Not a very organized event though.

Originally Posted by boarderwoozel3

I just want to ingest mind-altering chemicals and get my mind blown by tribal lasers.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

East Ender looks really appealing but my impression is that it would be tough to go to that and see something else at Sonar / elsewhere in Barcelona on the same night. (Like - there are several acts at Sonar by Night on Friday that I *have* to see -- and even though they will probably be over early, I don't think there would be enough time to still make it to east Ender for the end of the night?)

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

I think each night actually goes until sunrise? I have a feeling that the Mobilee showcase on Thursday and the DIYNAMIC showcase on Friday won't be at the main stages so I'm hoping I'll be able to see what I want at Sonar by Night and the head to East Ender.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

Yea, I'm not convinced that the things I want to see at Sonar by Night will be over early. I know for sure Kraftwerk is early (expecting them to be at a time slot similar to Amon Tobin and New Order last year - probably around 11PM?) I'm not very keen on spending an hour to go to the absolute opposite end of Barcelona in the middle of a Friday night, and I'm not feeling East Ender is worth the 50 Euro per night, but we'll see once the lineup comes out.

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

Originally Posted by chiapet

Oh man. You know what a fan I am of Max. However, that is the exact showcase last year that made me consider never going to another Sonar event.

Yikes! That's not a good sign especially since I respect your opinion (and this boards) in terms of quality. Already purchased the tix so will give it a shot unless another late night party pops up that interests me (wasn't even planning on going out Wed night).

Re: Sonar 2013 and off Sonar events

You've partied a lot in LA, though, right? You may have a thicker skin for it (though the crowd there was far worse than I've seen at any hollywood club event). We were REALLY excited about that lineup last year (which was very similar to this year's), it was just that the crowd was the worst I've ever experienced. (The venue staff was also pretty lacking, and Room 2 where Max & Perc were had some sound issues unless you moved far back in the room).

To be honest, i had the slightest temptation to buy a ticket because I love Max and Perc, but like... it was so bad that we actually got into physical altercations with people in the crowd, multiple times.